MORE than 1,000 mental health-related appointments are missed in the Borders every year.

Despite the latest available figures for 2017 being the lowest in the past five years, patients still didn't show for a total of 846 appointments with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) during the 12 months.

And a further 346 adult Psychology Services appointments were also missed during the same 12 months.

The region's Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service is based in Selkirk's Andrew Lang Unit.

Specialist psychiatrists, psychologists, paediatricians and psychotherapists work alongside nurses, occupational therapists and speech therapists to offer help for young people suffering from conditions such as anxiety, attention disorders, autism, eating disorders and learning difficulties.

NHS Borders' Psychology Services are based in Galashiels with clinical psychologists also working in hospitals, day centres, residential homes and health centres.

NHS Borders were unable to provide details of the financial implications involved in the 1192 'did not shows' during 2017.

Although the numbers are high, the 2017 figures are the lowest in the past five years.

In 2016 there were 970 missed CAMHS appointments and 444 Psychology Services appointments missed.

And the previous year there were 527 Psychology Services 'did not shows' and 785 missed CAMHS appointments.

A spokeswoman for NHS Borders told us: "We recognise that there are many reasons why people may not attend appointments, especially within our Child & Adolescent Mental Health and Psychology Services when patients may be experiencing anxiety or depression and parents may face challenges coordinating transport or childcare for their other children.

“We are always working on ways to make it easier for our patients to access care, such as running clinics in local health centres, and over the past five years (2013-2017) around 90 percent of CAMHS and Psychology patients have attended their appointments, which is only around 4 percent less than the average attendance for BGH Consultant Out-Patient Appointments.

“We encourage people to attend their appointments whenever possible, or let us know as soon as possible if they cannot attend, so that we can offer the appointments to other people. This is particularly important when there is a high demand for services.”